VIII.

History

A.

Early Inhabitants

There were an estimated 350,000 Native Americans in what is now Florida when Europeans first arrived early in the 16th century. They belonged to three major nations, the Calusa along the southwestern coast, the Timucua in the northern half of the peninsula, and the Apalachee where the peninsula joins the panhandle. Peoples dominated by the Calusa lived along the southeastern coast.

All were settled agricultural peoples, as skilled with the hoe as they were with canoes or with bows and arrows. They lived in villages, where they cultivated corn, beans, and other crops. Noted warriors, they fiercely resisted early attempts to bring them under submission, but coexisted peacefully with the Spaniards for most of the first 198 years of Spanish occupation.

The populations of these Native Americans were drastically reduced by diseases introduced by the European explorers. They had no resistance to pathogens such as measles, smallpox, and typhoid fever that Europeans normally survived. The Native Americans also lost ground because of slaving raids by English forces from South Carolina and Georgia. By mid-18th century these nations no longer existed. The modern Native Americans of Florida are the Seminole, originally Creek from the Georgia-Alabama border, who entered Florida in the period 1716 to 1767. Today they have five reservations in the state. They farm, hunt, and fish, run tourist-related businesses, and operate a large bingo hall near Miami.

B.

The 16th Century

B.1.

Spanish Discovery and Exploration

The Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de León landed on the Atlantic Coast of what is now Florida, probably at or near Melbourne Beach, early in April 1513. He is generally credited with being the first European to set foot in Florida, although he may have been preceded by slavers from the Spanish-held island of La Isla Española (Hispaniola) in the Caribbean Sea. In 1521 Ponce de León returned with two shiploads of colonists to found a settlement on the Gulf Coast, probably in the vicinity of Charlotte Harbor, but he was driven off, mortally wounded, by a Native American attack. A dubious legend of later years attributed his explorations in Florida to a quest for a magic fountain of youth.

Later explorations gave Spain a claim to the vast, uncharted area north and west of the peninsula. For many years the name La Florida, given by Ponce de León to the peninsula, was applied by Spain to the entire Atlantic coastline of North America as far north as Newfoundland.

In 1528 an expedition of 300 men led by Pánfilo de Narváez landed on the Gulf coast, probably at Tampa Bay. The party marched northward through forests and swamps to the area north of Apalachee Bay. Having found no gold there, and beset by continual Native American attacks, they set out for Mexico in crude wooden barges. Most of the members of the expedition were drowned when a sudden storm swamped the barges near Texas. In 1539 the quest for gold brought explorer Hernando de Soto and a force of more than 600 Spanish soldiers to the Tampa Bay area. After exploring the land to the north and northwest, they ventured westward, and, in 1541, discovered the Mississippi River.

B.2.

French and Spanish Rivalry

In 1562 Spanish claims to Florida were challenged by Jean Ribault, a French naval captain, who discovered the mouth of the Saint Johns River and thought it a likely site for a French settlement. Two years later René Goulaine de Laudonnière, one of Ribault’s officers, established Fort Caroline there. Spain, a Roman Catholic country, objected to the French settlement for religious as well as political reasons because the French colonists were Huguenots, or Protestants.

In 1565 Pedro Menéndez de Avilés, the newly appointed Spanish governor of La Florida, commanded a colonizing expedition that landed 64 km (40 mi) south of Fort Caroline and established San Agustín (now Saint Augustine), the first permanent European settlement in what is now the United States. Menéndez led a successful overland attack on Fort Caroline, while a French fleet, which was attempting to attack Saint Augustine, was destroyed by a violent storm. The Spaniards massacred most of the French at Fort Caroline and executed all but a few survivors of the shipwrecked fleet. Three years later, in revenge for the Fort Caroline massacre, a French expedition destroyed the Spanish garrison there. However, no further French settlements were made on the peninsula.

After the founding of Saint Augustine, Menéndez established a number of coastal outposts and a second major settlement, Santa Elena, at Parris Island in present-day South Carolina. Santa Elena was abandoned in 1586.

C.

The 17th and 18th Centuries

C.1.

Settlement and Conflict

Early in the 17th century, Franciscan priests converted most of the Timucua and Apalachee of northern Florida to Christianity. An interior chain of missions eventually extended from Saint Augustine to present-day Tallahassee, and another chain ran north along the coastal islands of Georgia.

England and France contested Spain’s claim to the vast area that the Spaniards called La Florida. For 150 years following the establishment of the first permanent English settlement in America at Jamestown, Virginia, in 1607, English colonists pushed slowly southward into Spanish territory, establishing settlements in the Carolinas and in Georgia. The English saw the Spanish missions as a threat to their claims. Throughout the early part of the 18th century, English raiders, accompanied by their Native American allies of the Creek and Yamasee nations, attacked Spanish settlements in northern Florida. All of the Spanish missions were destroyed, and most of the Timucua and Apalachee were killed, captured as slaves, or driven into exile.

Meanwhile, René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, and other French explorers of the interior of the continent reached the mouth of the Mississippi River in 1682. To counter their activities, the Spaniards in 1698 founded Pensacola in the panhandle. Over the next 20 years, the French founded settlements at Biloxi (now in Mississippi), Mobile (now in Alabama), and New Orleans (now in Louisiana). The French captured Pensacola in 1719, but returned it to Spanish rule in 1722. By 1750 France controlled the Gulf Coast area west of Pensacola, and Great Britain (a union of England, Scotland, and Wales) controlled the Atlantic Coast north of the Saint Marys River.

Toward the end of the French and Indian War (1754-1763) between France and Great Britain, Spain allied itself with France against Great Britain. But the British won the war and by the terms of the Treaty of Paris received Florida from Spain. The acquired land stretched as far west as the Mississippi River. The Spaniards retained New Orleans, near the mouth of the Mississippi.

C.2.

British Colonial Period

Under British administration, the territory was divided into two colonies, East Florida and West Florida. East Florida, with its capital at Saint Augustine, occupied most of the present-day state. West Florida, with its capital at Pensacola, extended westward from the Apalachicola River to the Mississippi and included parts of present-day Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana.

During the 21 years of British rule, many colonists from England and other parts of Europe settled in Florida. Indigo plants, which yield a blue dye, were grown on plantations to supply the British textile industries, and furs, citrus fruit, lumber, and naval stores were also produced for export.

When the 13 colonies of Great Britain on the Atlantic Seaboard declared their independence as the United States, during the American Revolution (1775-1783), they invited East and West Florida to join them. The Florida colonists, however, remained loyal to Great Britain. During the revolution many Loyalists—colonists who remained loyal to the British king—fled to East Florida from Georgia and South Carolina. Raids and counterraids were common along the East Florida-Georgia border, but there were no major military actions between the patriots and British forces.

C.3.

Second Spanish Period

In 1779 Spain joined the Revolutionary War on the side of the United States. Spanish forces from New Orleans attacked West Florida, capturing Mobile in 1780 and Pensacola in 1781. After the Revolution, in a second Treaty of Paris in 1783, the British formally returned both East Florida and West Florida to Spain. As a result, thousands of settlers left Florida for Britain’s island possessions in the West Indies.

The Spanish governor arrived in 1784. During this second period of Spanish colonial rule, until 1821, Florida received little attention from Spain. British traders were allowed to continue their profitable businesses in Florida, and immigrants from the United States began to settle there. These new settlers strongly supported annexation by the United States, and their views were encouraged by the U.S. government.

The United States and Spain disagreed about the location of the northern boundary of West Florida. The United States maintained, on the basis of language in the peace treaty of 1783, that it was latitude 31° north. Spain claimed the boundary to be latitude 32°30’ north, the boundary established during British rule, and refused to remove its army garrison from Natchez. Finally, in 1795, under the terms of the Treaty of San Lorenzo, Spain accepted latitude 31° north as the northern boundary of West Florida.

D.

The 19th Century

D.1.

United States Intervention

In the second decade of the 19th century, Florida’s diverse population included Spaniards, United States settlers, English traders, adventurers, runaway slaves, and the Seminole. Spain maintained a few garrisons in the principal ports, but for the most part left the countryside alone and the Seminole to themselves. An offshoot of the Creek nation of the Georgia-Alabama frontier, the Seminole included remnants of other native peoples and a number of escaped black slaves from Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi. They occupied lands in northern Florida that were coveted by residents of Georgia, although Florida belonged to Spain. Georgia residents were also unhappy over the Seminole practice of giving refuge to fugitive slaves.

In 1810 United States settlers in the western part of Florida rebelled against Spanish rule and declared their independence as the republic of West Florida. This area and other territory between the Mississippi and Perdido rivers was subsequently annexed by the United States. The eastern part, between the Perdido and Pearl rivers, was incorporated into Mississippi territory, while the area west of the Pearl was included in the Territory of Orleans (now the state of Louisiana).

During the War of 1812 the Spaniards allowed the British to occupy Pensacola and set up a naval base there. In 1814 American forces led by General Andrew Jackson attacked Pensacola and drove the British out. After the war the United States intervened in Florida on several occasions on behalf of American interests. The First Seminole War (1817-1818) began when U.S. troops, commanded by Jackson, invaded Florida to retaliate for border raids by the Seminole. Jackson seized a military post at Saint Marks and took as prisoners two British traders, Alexander Arbuthnot and Robert Chrystie Ambrister. He had them court-martialed for inciting the Seminole and then, having been found guilty, executed. Learning that the Seminole had fled toward Pensacola, he made a forced march and captured the post a second time.

Jackson’s actions created an international incident. Both Spain and Britain were incensed. Most of President James Monroe’s Cabinet was ready to repudiate Jackson, but Secretary of State John Quincy Adams, who had been negotiating with Spain for the sale of Florida, insisted that Jackson had not exceeded his orders. He persuaded Monroe to accept his view, and then instructed Spain that it should either govern Florida more effectively or cede it to the United States.

After long negotiations, Spain agreed in 1819 to cede Florida to the United States. A probable factor in the decision was that Spain was troubled at that time by revolts in its South American colonies and could ill afford to go to war with the United States. Under the terms of the treaty, called the Adams-Onís Treaty, the United States agreed to assume payment of claims, up to $5 million, which American citizens in Florida had lodged against Spain. The United States took formal possession of Florida in 1821.

D.2.

Territorial Period

For several months, Jackson served as military governor of Florida. Then Florida was organized as a territory with its present boundaries, and William P. DuVal was appointed its first territorial governor in 1822. Tallahassee was chosen as the site of the territorial capital in 1824. Settlers poured into the territory from neighboring states, and a typical Southern plantation system, based on cotton, corn, and tobacco, was established in northern Florida.

As the territory’s population increased, settlers pushed southward, displacing the Seminole. A treaty was forced on the Seminole in 1832 by which they were to move west of the Mississippi River within three years. However, many of them, led by Osceola, one of their war leaders, repudiated the treaty. Efforts to enforce it led to the Second Seminole War (1835-1842), which took the lives of 1,466 American soldiers and even more Seminole. When the fighting ended, most of the Seminole were removed from the state, but some took refuge in the Everglades, where many of their descendants now live. After the Third Seminole War (1855-1858), about half of those remaining were moved west. The rest stayed in Florida.

D.3.

Statehood

A state constitution was drafted in 1838, and Florida was admitted to the Union on March 3, 1845. William D. Moseley, a planter from Jefferson County, was elected first governor of the state of Florida.

Between 1845 and 1860 the number of inhabitants in the state increased from about 70,000 to more than 140,000. Most of the people lived in the northern part of the state, and vast areas of southern Florida remained uninhabited. Cotton, which was the chief cash crop, was produced by slave labor on plantations in middle Florida, between the Apalachicola and Suwannee rivers. Cattle were raised along the Peace and Saint Johns rivers. Some lumber, turpentine, leather, coarse cotton cloth, and salt were produced in the state. By 1861 the chief cities in northern Florida were linked by railroads.

D.4.

Civil War

Slavery was one of the most divisive political issues in the Congress of the United States in the early 19th century. Many Congress members from the Northern states pressed to end slavery, both because it was considered immoral and because white labor could not compete with unpaid black labor. Members from Florida and the other Deep South states believed that slavery was essential to their cotton-based agricultural system and that the North was trying to dominate the national economy.

By the 1850s, Southerners saw their power slipping in Congress, the clamor by Northern abolitionists—those who wanted an immediate and total end to slavery—was at a high pitch, and many white Floridians came to believe that secession from the Union was the only way to protect “Southern rights,” including the right to own slaves.

After South Carolina seceded from the Union in December 1860, Florida’s proslavery Democratic Party demanded the state’s immediate secession from the Union, and in January 1861 Florida officially seceded. The next month, after seven states had seceded, they organized as the Confederate States of America and began mobilizing for war. The American Civil War began officially on April 12, 1861, when Confederate artillery bombarded a federal fort in the harbor of Charleston, South Carolina.

During the Civil War, Union troops captured Jacksonville, Saint Augustine, Fernandina, Pensacola, and other coastal towns. Repeated Union attempts to gain control of the interior of the state failed, and Tallahassee was the only Confederate capital east of the Mississippi to escape Union occupation during the war. Inland routes were used to transport large quantities of beef, bacon, and salt supplied by Florida to the Confederate armies farther north. Confederate ships, operating out of sheltered inlets along the Florida coast, carried cotton, tobacco, and turpentine to the West Indies, where these commodities were traded for arms, ammunition, and medical supplies. Only one major battle was fought on Florida soil, on February 20, 1864, when Confederate troops defeated Union forces at Olustee.

D.5.

Reconstruction

After the Confederate surrender in 1865, President Andrew Johnson, as part of his plan of restoration, or Reconstruction, of the Union, appointed Provisional Governor William Marvin to reorganize the state government. A new state constitution was drawn up, formally abolishing slavery. The new government, however, was dominated by former Confederates. It enacted the so-called Black Code, similar to codes passed in other ex-Confederate states, which significantly denied blacks freedom of movement and of occupation.

Partly because of these acts by the Southern legislatures, the Radical wing of the Republican Party in Congress wrested control of Reconstruction from President Johnson and imposed the harsher regime called Radical Reconstruction. In March 1867 Congress put all the ex-Confederate states except Tennessee under military rule. Their readmission to the Union was made conditional on their adoption of new constitutions acceptable to Congress. When Florida ratified such a constitution in 1868 and accepted the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, guaranteeing civil rights for blacks, it was readmitted to the Union. Moderate Republicans, many of them from the North (called carpetbaggers by their enemies), drafted the constitution and held most of the offices until 1877. Assisting them were white Southerners who were willing to cooperate (called scalawags). During this period a number of blacks held political office, and blacks generally made modest gains as citizens.

However, many whites refused to accept the situation. Blacks were intimidated by terrorist organizations that engaged in such tactics as burning of homes and flogging or lynching of blacks they labeled as “dangerous.” Partly as a result of such terrorism, the Democrats were returned to power in the 1876 elections. Because the Southern Democrats were committed to white supremacy, blacks were relegated to an inferior position, in which they were forced to remain for nearly a century.

To keep blacks in an inferior position, whites restricted their voting rights using various methods. In the late 1880s Florida adopted a poll tax—a tax on voting—that eliminated the poorest voters, most of whom were black. Fraud and intimidation against black voters were constant factors in keeping the Democrats in power.

In the last part of the 19th century, Florida, like other Southern states, established racial segregation through laws providing separate public facilities for whites and blacks. Segregation became a basic rule in Southern society, helping to ensure that blacks would not present a serious challenge to the social order.

D.6.

Agricultural Distress and Populism

Farmers’ incomes declined sharply after the Civil War, while their living and operating costs rose. Growers of cotton, then Florida’s chief cash crop, were especially hard hit because the price of cotton fell and stayed low until the turn of the 20th century. In the 1870s and 1880s American farmers formed cooperative groups called farmers’ alliances, which were part of a movement of agrarian unrest and protest called populism. Among the causes of unrest were the interest rates charged by banks and the discriminatory freight rates charged by railroads. The alliances soon realized that their grievances had to be addressed with political action. At its 1890 national convention in Ocala, Florida, the National Farmers Alliance adopted its Ocala Platform calling for a “subtreasury” system to replace national banks and make low-interest loans to farmers; an increase in the money supply; free and unlimited coinage of silver; government control of transportation; and an income tax. This platform led to creation of a third party, the People’s Party, to challenge the Democrats and Republicans.

In Florida, however, third-party sentiment was stalled by a powerful Florida Alliance faction that preferred to work within the Democratic Party. The Florida Democrats did endorse the Ocala Platform in 1891, but it was not implemented. Dissatisfied Alliance members put the People’s Party on the ballot in 1892, but because most black farmers—who were a substantial part of Alliance supporters—could not vote, it was defeated and withered away. The Democrats ruled without serious challenge for many years afterward.

D.7.

Growth of Commerce

Although agriculture was depressed, Florida’s economy began its first major period of rapid growth in the 1880s. Hamilton Disston, a Northern industrialist, bought 1,600,000 hectares (4 million acres) of Florida land in 1881 and became one of the state’s first real estate developers. Two Northern financiers, Henry M. Flagler and Henry B. Plant, encouraged the development of Florida as a resort area by building railroads, hotels, and tourist facilities. Exploitation was begun of the state’s phosphate deposits, which were discovered in 1884, and new lands were opened for agriculture in southern Florida. During the 1890s a series of comparatively severe winters damaged the citrus fruit crops of northern Florida. Citrus fruit growers moved southward on the peninsula in order to lessen the risk of frost. Florida’s resort business expanded during World War I (1914-1918), when foreign travel was restricted.

E.

The 20th Century

E.1.

The Real Estate Boom

After World War I the state’s economy continued to develop rapidly. More than 1 million tourists a year visited Florida in the early 1920s, and land speculators rushed to the state, hoping to make their fortunes in real estate. Between 1920 and 1925 the population increased four times faster than that of any other state. Real estate prices soared, especially in the Miami area. Swamps and mudflats were drained, forests were cleared, and roads and railroads were extended to the newly developed areas. The real estate boom reached its peak in 1925 and then collapsed in the spring of 1926. Land values dropped, banks failed, and many personal fortunes were lost. In addition, Florida was struck by disastrous hurricanes in 1926 and again in 1928. Nevertheless, the tourist industry continued to develop and the economy had made a partial recovery by 1929.

E.2.

The Depression Years

Income from tourism and other economic activities in Florida dropped sharply during the worldwide Great Depression, the hard times of the 1930s. After a few years, however, Florida’s economy began to improve, partly as a result of federal and state aid programs. During the depression, cooperative farm groups and farm markets were organized. Wood pulp and paper mills were also established.

E.3.

World War II and After

During World War II (1939-1945), more than 2 million servicemen and women trained in Florida military bases, while German submarines sank 24 merchant ships in the state’s coastal waters. During and after the war, manufacturing expanded rapidly in Florida, providing more economic diversity and comparative stability. In 1949 the U.S. Air Force Missile Test Center was established at Cape Canaveral and soon became a center for space exploration. The first U.S. earth satellite, Explorer I, was launched from the base in 1958, and the first manned U.S. space capsule, Freedom 7, was launched there in 1961. In 1969 the John F. Kennedy Space Center, also at Cape Canaveral, was the launch site for Apollo 11, the first spaceflight to land humans on the moon.

After World War II, another boom developed in the real estate and construction industries. Spurring the growth were new developments in air conditioning and mosquito control. Beaches, tourist attractions, hotels, motels, restaurants, and improved roads brought in millions of visitors, and many settled permanently in Florida. Between 1930 and 1980 no other state matched Florida’s 564 percent rate of growth. The eighth most populous state in the nation in 1980, Florida rose to fourth largest in the next decade, when 900 new residents moved into the state each day. The spiraling population increase, particularly in the southern counties, placed great strain on urban infrastructures such as power, water, and sewer lines. By 1988 Florida required each day 1.6 km (1 mi) of new highway, two new K-12 classrooms and teachers, two more police officers, three more state prison beds, and 47 gallons (178 liters) more water.

Immigration to Florida continues to be strong, although not at the same high levels experienced in the 1980s. Much of the immigration has given the state a Latin cast, especially in Miami and Miami-Dade County. Since Fidel Castro’s seizure of Cuba in 1959, more than 800,000 Cubans have come to Florida. In recent years they have been joined by immigrants from El Salvador, Colombia, Venezuela, and other Latin American countries. One striking result is that Miami has become a major center for Latin American banking, trade, and culture. In Miami-Dade County, 53.3 percent of the residents speak a language other than English at home.

E.4.

Political Changes

Major political changes occurred in Florida after 1950. Many northern immigrants, unlike the older natives, were not Democrats by tradition. A small Republican Party had existed in Florida since the 1920s. As the national Democratic Party embraced issues such as civil rights that were unpopular in Florida, Floridians increasingly turned to the Republican Party.

When the state legislature was reapportioned in 1968 to give equal representation to the new population of southern Florida, it was widely expected that it would become more progressive and spend more for social programs. Instead, the state remained conservative. Many of the new residents were retired people or small businessmen and women who, it turned out, opposed the higher taxes required for progressive government programs.

Although both state parties are conservative, the Republicans have often had the advantage because of the national Democratic Party’s liberal image. After 1952 the state regularly voted for the Republican candidates in presidential elections except for the 1964 and 1976 elections. Both Democratic and Republican gubernatorial candidates have been elected since the 1960s, but in 1994 Florida’s state senate acquired a Republican majority for the first time since Reconstruction. Democratic Governor Lawton Chiles kept his seat in that election by the narrow margin of 51 percent of the vote versus his Republican opponent’s 49 percent. In 1998, however, Republican Jeb Bush was elected governor. He was reelected in 2002.

When the Supreme Court of the United States ordered desegregation of schools in its Brown v. Board of Education decision of 1954, many Floridians approved of Governor Leroy Collins’s policy of peaceful—if reluctant—acceptance. However, racial tension continued in certain areas, aggravated by the massive influx of refugees from Communist Cuba and the economic troubles of the late 1970s. Angered by their continuing poverty and what they perceived as unfair treatment by the police, blacks rioted in 1980 in the Liberty City section of Miami; the rioting resulted in 18 deaths, both white and black, and more than $100 million in property damage.

E.5.

The Environment

In the 1980s and 1990s Floridians had to contend with environmental damage. Florida has 58 hazardous waste sites on the national priority list of the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Water quality has suffered greatly from unrestricted population growth. Overdevelopment and urban sprawl have consumed or polluted water resources throughout the state, and currently they threaten the purity of the aquifer that supplies drinking water for 5 million people in south Florida.

A vocal lay environmental movement has achieved notable successes, including the passage of legislation to control encroachment on the fragile ecosystems that keep the peninsula—one of the world’s few green landmasses at this latitude—from becoming a desert. Large federal and state programs are attempting to reverse damage to the Everglades, the vast sheet of fresh water that has nourished the entire southern tip but is now poisoned by chemical runoff.

F.

Entering the 21st Century

F.1.

Hurricanes

In 2004 Florida experienced one of the most devastating hurricane seasons in its history. Four hurricanes—Charley, Frances, Ivan, and Jeanne—hit the state in August and September, the first time a state experienced four hurricanes in a single season since Texas in 1886, according to the National Hurricane Center. Hurricane Frances caused the largest mass evacuation in the state’s history. The four storms were responsible for at least 20 deaths in the state, at least $15 billion in insured property damages, and the temporary loss of electrical power for millions of residences.

F.2.

Election Disputes

In 2000 Florida became the focus of national attention during the disputed presidential election between Democrat Al Gore and Republican George W. Bush (brother of Governor Jeb Bush). Because both candidates needed Florida’s 25 electoral college votes to win, voting procedures in Florida came under great scrutiny, both during the dispute and after the election was awarded to George W. Bush. Reports emerged of voting irregularities, including confusing ballots and thousands of so-called undervotes (ballots that did not register a vote for a presidential candidate when they were run through the counting machines).

Throughout the state, some blacks claimed they were denied the right to vote because of incorrectly processed voter registration applications or older voting machines that did not function properly. Various civil rights organizations filed a lawsuit against the state charging that blacks were discouraged from voting. In 2001 the U.S. Civil Rights Commission issued its findings on the election, concluding that there was a “widespread denial of voting rights.”

In response to the election problems, the Florida legislature passed a bill in 2001 known as the Florida Election Reform Act. The bill prohibited punch-card ballot machines, provided for a uniform statewide ballot design, and set standards for reviewing ballots during a manual recount.